Passe' words and phrases

[Rosie]

I'm not sure if this is vintage speak at all but certainly I'm the only one I know who uses these phrases.

I use the words tomfoolery and shenanigans a lot. Like in the classroom: (Samantha, stop your tomfoolery this minute).

I also use "life of Riley" which I picked up from my dad.

I use broad. (which I have been told is supposed to be a male's term for a woman)

I use heel.


It's actually funny because another teacher told me once the students in my school get to fifth grade, you can tell who has been in my class the previous year because they realize how to spell a lot, not alot, they ask may I use the restroom instead of can I go to the bathroom, and they use the terms tomfoolery and shenanigans. Maybe my students will bring those terms back in vogue.

 

[scotrace]

What is oleo?

Oleo Margerine.
Fake butter.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

What is oleo?

It's a Sonny Rollins tune ...

bk

 

[Baron Kurtz]

"There's not a Chinaman's Chance of finding a Stratoliner hat for under $20"

You're wrong lol lol lol lol

bk (Sits back smugly grinning to self)

 

[LizzieMaine]

I grew up calling a record player a "Victrola," because that's what my mother always called it -- as in "SHUT OFF THAT VICTROLA RIGHT NOW OR IT'S GOIN' OUT THE WINDOW!"

We also called the front porch of a house a "piazza," an obstreperous child "a Tartar," and if something was really really swell, it was a "corker" (which, local dialect, always came out "cocker.")

 

[Benny Holiday]

Great phrases and words, Senator

Jazz musicians here in Sydney still use words like 'cat', 'dig' and 'crazy' quite prolifically, which is, I think, a good thing. My own passe phrase is one I learned from my Dad, who called the police 'wallopers'. If I see a police car, I always say, "Look, there's the wallopers". My wife thinks it's hilarious!

 

[Rosie]

I grew up calling a record player a "Victrola," because that's what my mother always called it -- as in "SHUT OFF THAT VICTROLA RIGHT NOW OR IT'S GOIN' OUT THE WINDOW!"

We also called the front porch of a house a "piazza," an obstreperous child "a Tartar," and if something was really really swell, it was a "corker" (which, local dialect, always came out "cocker.")

I call the refrigerator (which totally sounds like a vintage word in and of itself) a fridgidaire

 

[Viola]

Lots of women around here say pocketbook instead of purse, I do too, I didn't realize it was vintage. A purse is a change-purse, the tiny one inside of the pocketbook.

Of course I kinda don't enunciate, so it sounds like "pockabook" but again I think that's regional.

"From the git go" - From the beginning. I got this from my mom.

"Yea high" - This high. There's an accompanying gesture with this.

"Oh, sugar." Instead of "oh s---."

"Pick up your brass and clear the line." This is from my dad. It can mean anything from "your turn is over" to "get the heck out of my way."

 

[marshaellen]

passe words and phrases

words i still use, fillin station, ice box, diner, phonograph, picture show yes siree bob, face powder, to name a few

 

[Mike in Seattle]

How about "Tomato," referring to a woman?

"She's a real sad tomato,
she's a busted valentine..."

This is a weird coincidence - I was singing that song not 20 minutes ago working in the kitchen...

 

[Cobden]

I was always told that the phrase "at sixes and sevens" comes from the London livery companies; a sort of predecessor to trades unions. The different trades (or Worshipful Companies) have an order of precedence. The top ten are:
1. Mercers
2. Grocers
3. Drapers
4. Fishmongers
5. Goldsmiths
6/7 Merchant Taylors
7/6 Skinners
8. Haberdashers
9. Salters
10.Ironmongers

However, the sixth and seventh position alternates yearly, with the Merchant Taylors being six one year, then seven the next, and vice versa for the Skinners, which is a bit confusing. Hence "at sixes and sevens".

 

[raiderrescuer]

With Bells On...

Our Gate Sergeant used the phrase "I’ll be there with Bells On"

Not a week later and I was watching a Bewitched rerun and Darrin used the exact same term.

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000519

" F. Scott Fitzgerald left the final preposition off in his 1922 Beautiful & Damned, where we see, "All-ll-ll righty. I'll be there with bells." And there is an occasional use of with bells on as a more general intensifier, something to add a little punch. A 1930 cite says, "You can have it...with bells on," and one from 1960 reads (rather rudely, I think), "The same to you, with bells on." But mostly, it's party time."

 

[Braxton36]

I forgot all about -

"filling station" - which nowadays ought to be part and parcel of a branch bank in that it takes such a wad of money to actually fill a tank!

And, I also forgot about "davenport" which is a 1920's term for a cushioned sofa. My children loll all over my great grandmother's davenport every day - never with a thought of its earlier name.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Well, Frigidaire is a brand name, and lots of brand names get used generically, like Kleenex and Band-Aid.

I wish they still made Kelvinators.

My favorite old expression, except that I don't really use it because nobody would "get" it, is "Ameche" for "telephone" because the great Don Ameche played Alexander Graham Bell in a movie.

 

[Dixon's Dame]

I know I use a lot of older terminology, cuz I often get laughed at by people at work, or they go "what?". Of course now that I'm trying to think of what I say that gets the biggest reaction, I can't think of anything.

I say "lousy" a lot, which I almost never hear any more
"hubba hubba"
"dame" or "doll"
"mooch"
"dig"
"off and on"

Of course, half the time I seem to speak in quoted movie dialog (there really is a line for everything) and, as I mostly watch classic movies, that's sort of a form of vintage talk all on its own.

 

[Novella]

Oh I thought of one I say - "folks".

 

[Veronica Parra]

My husband's dad calls a men's toiletry bag a "ditty bag". He learned the term in the U.S. Navy.

 

[Rosie]

I use the term mooch too. Mooching, Moocher.

 

[Benny Holiday]

My favorite old expression, except that I don't really use it because nobody would "get" it, is "Ameche" for "telephone" because the great Don Ameche played Alexander Graham Bell in a movie.

I haven't heard that one in a while, Tony! An old work colleague of mine often used to say he was 'on the blower' when he was talking on the phone.

Another anachronism used by my circle of friends is 'bodgie,' orginially an Aussie slang word meaning 'fake or faulty.' Today, it's still used in that context, as in "that's a bodgie paint job," but in the mid-40's through to the 1950's, it was synonymous with the American term 'greaser,' a leather jacketed juvenile delinquent.

The phrase was coined when Australian youths fell in love with American dancing, music, slang and clothing during and after WWII. Visiting US soldiers had a lot more money than local kids, who began to ape the zoot suit- and blue jean-look of their U.S. counterparts. To get a date, some boys even went so far as to imitate an American accent in order to impress a girl.

People coined the kids "Bodgie Yanks," meaning fake Americans. As most of them were zoot-suited hoodlums with Tony Curtis haircuts, the term stuck as a designation for all rock'n'roll loving J.D.'s of the 50's.

That use of the word bodgies is long forgotten by young people now, except for a lot of my friends in the rockabilly/Swing scene, who still use 'bodgie' to refer to a hepcat/greaser type.

Sadly, no one seems to remember where the female equivalent term of 'widgie' came from.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I say "say" a lot for emphasis at the beginning of a sentence. Like, "Say, weren't you planning on buying me a present?" Others: doll, broad, dame, fellow, picture show, cinema, powder room (instead of ladies room).